[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: Which is better (for medical data)?
On Fri, 18 Oct 2002, Elizabeth Hinson wrote: > Hello XML experts, > > > > I'm involved in a project to develop a medical database for clinical > images. We are considering Filemaker 6.0 (which is for the > non-professional, much like Access, but has the ability to export and > import XML). I understand all the big guys too handle XML. But someone > told me that XML itself CAN be used as a database. Then I heard about > "Native XML Databases" or NXDs. But reading further I got confused. > There seem to be 2 camps: those in favor of traditional databases with > XML support, and the pure XML folks. > > What would you recommend? Which is better (for medical data)? > > > > Native XML database > > or > > XML-enabled relational database? > > > > Thanks a lot! > > > > Elizabeth > > (An XML newbie) > > Hello Elizabeth. You didn't mention what you wanted to do with the XML. If you are considering Filemaker already and it meets your needs, stick with it. I am working with a number of others on a forthcoming book: "XML Data Management: Native XML and XML-Enabled Database Systems" http://www.aw.com/catalog/academic/product/1,4096,0201844524,00.html Another book to look at is: "Designing XML Databases" by Mark Graves http://vig.prenhall.com/catalog/academic/product/1,4096,0130889016,00.html The focus of Mark's book is using existing Relational technology and he covers several approaches to managing XML. Nice gentle read IMHO. If performance is an issue, I have a list of XML benchmarks that I maintain: http://www.btinternet.com/~webdatabases/html/benchmarks.html Scroll down to near the bottom of the page. I've also helped with a couple of workshops where we've had good papers published covering issues of storage, performance, etc. Proceedings will be published soon. Some web pages: "EDBT 2002 Workshop on XML-Based Data Management" http://www.btinternet.com/~webdatabases/edbt02/index.html "VLDB 2002 Workshop on Efficiency and Effectiveness of XML Tools, and Techniques" http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~ebh/eextt2002/ "Web Databases 2002" http://www.btinternet.com/~webdatabases/webdb02/index.html You can try your hand at an Open Source NXD, such as Xindice from Apache. I recently published an article on dW: http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-xindice.html Far better to try for yourself, rather than just reading about it IMHO. HTH -- Akmal B. Chaudhri Zone Editor, Special Projects (Eclipse, Grid, Web Services) IBM developerWorks - http://www.ibm.com/developerWorks/ WebDatabases ------- http://www.btinternet.com/~webdatabases/
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